Deir El-Bachit, leatherware studies on a Coptic monastery

André Veldmeijer's latest release deals with the footwear of the Coptic monastery and cemetery Deir el-Bachit. It is situated on the hilltop of Dra’ Abu el-Naga, the well-known necropolis in Qurna (West Bank, Luxor). It is the largest Coptic monastery complex preserved in Western Thebes and the first monastery that has been systematically investigated. The excavation of the monastery was started as a DFG-Project des Ägyptologischen Instituts der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in close collaboration with the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Abteilung Kairo.
Until the start of the investigations in 2001 with a survey, little research was done. After three seasons of preliminary research, full archaeological research was started in 2004. The leatherwork was studied in 2007, which culminated in this volume . The book consists of two parts: a comprehensive analysis as well as a detailed catalog. The catalog contains colour images of all finds and, where necessary, line drawings. The finds are analyzed within the framework of the excavation as well as within the frameworks of the Ancient Egyptian Leatherwork Project and the Ancient Egyptian Footwear Project (www.leatherandshoes.nl).
Monograph
Year: 2011
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Category: Egypt, leather-ware, archaeology, Egyptology, Coptic
ISBN: 978-90-8890-074-7
Number of pages: 276
Price: 62.95
also available as downloadable PDF (€4.50 incl. VAT) or read for free in the e-library:
Deir El-Bachit
http://www.sidestone.com/books/sandals-shoes-and-other-leatherwork-from-the-coptic-monastery-deir-el-bachit
André Veldmeijer bio
André J. Veldmeijer (assistant director for Egyptology at the Netherlands Flemish Institute Cairo) studied archaeology at Leiden University (The Netherlands) and received his PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology from Utrecht University (The Netherlands) in 2006. He has worked in Egypt since 1995 as a leather, footwear and cordage specialist for various missons (including Amarna, Berenike, Dra’ Abu el-Naga, Elephantine, Hierakonpolis and Qasr Ibrim). Veldmeijer has also worked in several collections all over the world, studying ancient Egyptian and Nubian leatherwork and footwear as part of the Ancient Egyptian Leatherwork Project (AELP) and the Ancient Egyptian Footwear Project (AEFP) respectively. Among these collections are the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His second PhD, on the archaeology of footwear, is planned for the next four years.
Veldmeijer is the director of two ongoing research projects: Ancient Egyptian Leatherwork Project (including the Egyptian Museum Chariot Project) and Ancient Egyptian Footwear Project. Veldmeijer is one of the founders and current chairman of the PalArch Foundation.